Many hundreds of thousands of 911 calls are sent each day for varying types of medical and non-medical related emergencies. Of these many hundreds of thousands 911 calls, approximately 150,000 of these calls originate from mobile terminals. In view of the increasing numbers of 911 calls in general, and mobile-originated 911 calls specifically, the FCC has imposed E911 phase 1 and phase 2 requirements on local wireless carriers and Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) providers to improve on the information which is transmitted over a 911 call to assist in providing a response that is accurately targeted at the whatever emergency is being reported and to the proper person or persons in need of the service. Thus, these FCC E911 requirements have imposed a requirement that PSAP providers add TTY capabilities to their call tracker stations. The E911 phase 2 requirements place geo-location requirements on calls originating from terminals to assist in locating the physical location from which a 911 call is originating from since a constant physical location cannot be associated with a wireless call from a known number as can a call from a landline telephone on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
Once a call is made, getting as much pertinent information and as quickly as possible to the PSAP relating to the type and location of the emergency, and to the possible person who might need assistance is critical in determining how and when a response to the call should be made. Frequently, the person making the call is in such a distressed state that such critical information is misstated or is not given at all.
A prior art OnStar system offers its subscribers a MED-NET option in which its subscriber's medical information is provided to emergency response personnel upon a detected emergency. The OnStar system uses a proprietary satellite network to detect an emergency condition, and requires the user to subscribe to its service. With the MED-NET option, the OnStar advisor upon detecting a emergency in its subscriber's vehicle manually contacts emergency personnel and advises them of the availability of the medical information at a file at Global MED-NET, medical data storage and retrieval company. The emergency personnel then must separately contact that company to retrieve that information to assist in the care of the OnStar subscriber. Disadvantageously, only OnStar subscribers can avail themselves of this service. Further, the emergency personnel must affirmatively request the information from the MED-NET company.